Often when I see or hear something especially lovely I think of that first stanza. The silence of reflection after the sight or sound is what allows it to sink in and resonate. On those occasions of monumental change, such as a graduation or major move, I think of stanza nine above. The contrast of what the blackbird sees (continuous progression without boundaries) and what we see (a line at the horizon; progressive boundaries) perfectly illustrates changing perspectives.

I think I first read this poem in college and these two sections have stayed with me. In my mind they seem to be a kind of haiku. When I found the poem in Nancie Atwell’s book Lessons That Change Writers I was delighted to see how she uses it to teach students how to tease apart meaning by looking at the sections separately and then the poem as a whole. She asks her students to list the thirteen ways of looking Stevens uses in his poem. She says,

“What it did for us was lay bare some of the literary, cultural, and historical perspectives that Stevens packed into his remarkable poem. Attempting to name what Stevens did set the stage for students to feel confident about trying “ways” poems of their own. I told kids, “You could do this.”

Atwell and her students list the perspectives Stevens uses to see a blackbird. They include: “The blackbird as a tiny detail in a vast landscape, a simile, a metaphorical math problem, a philosophical proposition, a mystery story, a sermon, a metaphysical geometry problem, a legend , a fairy tale, a pearl of folk wisdom, and a view of something at the end of the world”. The more closely one looks at this poem, the more beauty and sophistication one sees. I am inspired by the poem itself and by the way Atwell uses it to teach and encourage her student poets.

The Poetry Friday round up is here today. Please leave a link to your poetry post here. Then come back later in the day to click on the links to other blogger’s contributions. TGIPF!

Wow you two are quick! I haven't even finished editing my post and you are jumping in. LOL I am having Internet problems today. I have been up since the crack of dawn but I couldn't get online. I had to wake up Buster and borrow his laptop with the neighbor's wireless. Oy. His USB ports don't work so I couldn't use my flash drive to import the already written posts. I burned them on a CD and then found out he didn't have MS Word installed. I finally found his texteditor that would open my doc and got this up. Anything for Poetry!

Beaucoup Thanks to Buster for being so gracious and waking up to help us out in the dawn's early light.

I've got a poem about the summertime mommy. I used the format from Donald Graves I found at Penny Kittles site. It has one repetitious line throughout. It was a great exercise! Love to read all the great poetry. It's a very great way to kick off the weekend.Cloudscome thank you for hosting, sorry it was such a crazy morning.

Oh, and I took a picture of the frame with the photo, but I took it on my camera phone and don't know how to get it off. As soon as I get some husbandly assistance with that, I'll email it to you. It looked good! Thanks again.

Thanks for doing the round-up. I took the time to read all the way through "Death of the Hired Man" by Robert Frost today, and I listened to the audio too, and loved both. So both are posted for your reading enjoyment at http://journey-woman.blogspot.com/2007/06/little-poetry-for-you-frost.html.

I wasn't familiar with the Wallace Stevens poem. Coincidentally, just after reading your exerpts, I returned to reading An Ear To The Ground: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry and I came across Raymond R. Patterson's "Twenty-Six Ways of Looking at a Blackman". Thanks for adding some additional perspective!

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I review software, electronic resources, and books for children and young adults, particularly those that are inclusive of diverse ethnicities. I accept multicultural fiction, nonfiction and poetry books for review. I am happy to support authors and illustrators of color. For more information please contact me at cloudscome AT yahoo DOT com.